Wow! Lots of help here!
Bestclimb: Yes, I do want one. I ran the math, and if it gains me 5mpg, it'll pay for itself in about 6-7 months. (Gas in my area is currently $3.20ish/gal). I'm still reluctant to put out the cash for one, though. I only just bought the car two months ago, and I'm still getting used to it...the clutch is WAY different than my '67 VW, and it's just a different vehicle all around. I do want to put a few more tanks-worth of miles on it so as to establish a baseline of what I can do just by the seat of my pants, that way I can better know what kind of gain I'm actually shooting for. This tank is looking like better mileage than the last two, based on eyeballing the gas gauge-- we'll see for sure when I fill up this weekend.
MetroMPG: I'm really happy with the fact that you all think >40mpg is attainable. That's encouraging.
The CX has no power steering, which is nice. I think I could probably do a kill switch-- though I do want to experiment with bump-starting first, and get that skill down. It sounds like it'd be within the budget, which, as I mentioned earlier is super-tight (thankfully by choice, and not necessity). Also, this CX is the nicest/newest vehicle I've ever owned in my life, so I kinda don't want to mess it up. :P
The customers aren't as worried about the looks of the car as my boss is. I'm pretty sure he wants his delivery fleet to look reasonably clean/in repair/not jerry-rigged/etc. Otherwise, I'd be driving my '67 rusty VW surf wagon for delivering pizzas...
Redpoint5: I don't have a smart phone. I barely have a cell phone, and that's only because it's required as a pizza delivery driver. If I did, I'd be all over that suggestion. Yes, I have a manual trans; it was a must-have when I was looking for a car. They're just so much better all around (plus more reliable).
I'm in a pretty small/rural city (20k pop), so the only two (4) lane traffic is the highway through town. A lot of the lights are sensored and a few are timed. I'm always plotting how to hit the lights right and mentally calculating which route(s) will be least impeded.
Re: grill blocks-- hotter engines are more efficient? I've heard this elsewhere, but haven't thought about it much. Does it kill efficiency if/when the cooling fan comes on?
Re: EOC-- I noticed the other day when I was coasting into my parking spot at home, that when I switch the key off, the speedo falls to zero. Then I noticed that the odometer ALSO stopped moving. The speedo/odo functioned normally when I switched the key on (but engine still off) while rolling. Is this normal? Or only in newer cars with electronic instrumentation? Also, this means that any miles I EOC (like into my parking spot) without the key on aren't counted toward my mileage... :S
Also, as an aside, I wish I had a tach (which I guess I would if I bought a scangauge, huh? ;P). I'm stuck with the super basic gauge package though-- speed/temp/fuel + idiot lights.
